I never think about audience when I write. As you formulate ideas for your stories and poems, how does this expectation that your books will be controversial affect how you write and what you write about? You’ve been called a “dangerous” writer by those who disagree with and seek to ban books such as HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES. But we need many more voices to truly represent the diversity of our society. Several years ago, Tricycle Press actually invited me to write a set of board books for children with two moms and two dads they also joyfully published my book, DONOVAN’S BIG DAY, which takes place on the day Donovan’s two moms wed. Things have definitely changed since 1989, when a friend and I published the book together, funded by ten-dollar donations from dozens of people. Which is why I wrote HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES.

I read books about children being visited by Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, which were things my family did not do. I also knew firsthand what it felt like to not have my own family portrayed in a book, movie, or on TV, because I grew up in the 1950s and never read a book about a little girl with curly brown hair eating matzo ball soup with her bubbe on Friday night. Somebody should write one.” And I knew by “somebody” she meant me. A woman approached me on the street and said, “My daughter doesn’t have a book that shows a family like ours. As we observe Banned Books Week, can you reflect on how alternative stories and voices are marginalized in children’s publishing?īack in 1989, when I first wrote HEATHER, there were no children’s books that showed a family that consisted of a child with two lesbian moms.

You’ve said that you wrote the groundbreaking HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES because certain kids and families were being left out of the children’s book conversation. A past poet laureate of Northampton, MA, she currently teaches writing for children and young adults at Spalding University’s brief-residency MFA in Writing program. Her literary awards include poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation, the Dog Writers Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion, and a Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award. Lesléa Newman is the author of 64 books for readers of all ages including the short story collection, A LETTER TO HARVEY MILK the teen poetry collection, OCTOBER MOURNING: A SONG FOR MATTHEW SHEPARD the middle-grade novel, HACHIKO WAITS and the children’s books, A SWEET PASSOVER, JUST LIKE MAMA, THE BEST CAT IN THE WORLD, THE BOY WHO CRIED FABULOUS, and HEATHER HAS TWO MOMMIES.

Hachiko Waits by Lesléa Newman